The underlying invention generally relates to the field of five-port receivers, especially to a new topology for a five-port junction device with three power sensors to be applied to the processing and direct down-conversion of broadband RF signals i.e. within an operation bandwidth between 1 and 7 GHz. Thereby, said receiver does not need additional passive (resistive) network, which leads to a significant increase in the overall signal-to-noise (S/N) performance. Compared to receivers with a resistive five-port topology according to the state of the art, a non-optimized structure sensitivity enhancement (system gain) of 8–9 dB can be observed. Since a simpler technology is employed, a significant decrease in microchip size (of more than 50%) can be achieved.
Six-port technology can be used for the processing of RF signals, thereby allowing a direct down-conversion from millimeter-wave range and microwave range to the base band without needing any I/Q demodulation microchip (digital or analog). By using suitable calibration procedures, the influences of the non-ideal passive RF components—including manufacturing tolerances—can be minimized. A six-port receiver detects the relative phase and relative magnitude of two incoming RF signals. Its circuitry can be realized by passive components in combination with diodes for the detection of the relative phase and the relative amplitude of the RF signals. In this context, it should be mentioned that an important feature of six-port receivers consists in the possibility of calibrating fabrication tolerances, which inherently allows low-cost production.